Turkey shoots down Russian jet
Late yesterday Turkey (a NATO member) shot down a Russian jet, either inside its airspace (Turkey claims) or over Syria (Russia claims).
International
war
Graph of the day
Please don’t go there America
Donald Trump won’t rule out “tracking Muslim Americans in a database or giving them “a special form of identification that noted their religion””. Brings to mind an F word.
Ground troops to Iraq – PM please explain
PM please explain, what the hell good would sending a few Kiwi ground troops to the ongoing disaster of the Middle East achieve? Is it the whole cost of being in the club thing again?
Imperator Fish: the Terrorist Test
Following from a tweet from Josie Pagani Imperator Fish has designed this handy quiz so that protesters can work out if they prefer ISIS to the TPP.
Paris as an excuse for more useless surveillance
The Paris attacks are being used as an excuse for another ill informed debate about surveillance and encryption – which doesn’t address the communication channels that terrorists are actually using. The tools that our governments want can be used very effectively to spy on you and me though (as Key effectively acknowledges in passing).
Paris 3 – common sense from Democrats
The fallout from the Paris attacks continues. The American political reaction is as important as it is predicable.
Paris 2
From Hollande’s reaction it seems likely that the terrorists will accomplish their goal.
Finally Fighting for Democracy?
Boots on ground.
Just another coverup
The Nats changing lines on the Taji report look like just another routine coverup of just another routine lie. At least, I hope so, because not knowing / caring about the report would be worse.
The Taji report
An American report which came out shortly before Key’s visit to our troops at Taji camp in Iraq is strongly critical of conditions there, and of the efficacy of the training process. Key claims he didn’t know, yet another of his outbreaks of “convenient ignorance”.
The Ankara massacre
Terrible news from Turkey where over a hundred protesters have been killed by explosions at a peaceful protest organised to seek an end to the violence between the Kurdish separatist PKK militants and the Turkish government.
Obama says “sorry” but…
Will New Zealand (John Key), as a signatory to the Geneva Convention Protocol I, support Medecins sans Frontieres call for an independent fact finding commission into the bombing of their hospital, and the deaths of Doctors and children and 37 injured? Or will he pretend he never got the letter?
The (gradual?) decline of American empire
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson was Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell. And he says that the American empire is in decline.
Bashar al-Assad and other Bastards.
What proper journalistic coverage of Syria looks like.
Speech to UN height of hypocrisy
Key’s little lecture to the UN would have been delivered with a lot more moral authority if it wasn’t built on the heights of hypocrisy.
Three minutes to midnight. John Key incoherent.
Same ole, same ole. Except, this time, US neoconservative imperalism might have a problem. Russia.
Stephenson beats his critics
Respected journalist Jon Stephenson has extracted an apology and payment from the NZ Defence Force for their attack on his work in 2011. He is owed an apology from John Key too…
All the left wants is a clean contest of ideas
Josie Pagani yesterday chose as a left wing commentator to condemn Jeremy Corbyn’s politics as being based on narcissism where hard decisions never need to be made, and the unpopularity of a policy was evidence not of its failure but of its virtue. She should have analysed his history before making these claims. And in the interests of balance the media really needs to choose left wing commentators who will proudly stand up and support progressive ideals rather than repeat right wing attack lines.
Refugee crisis a taste of things to come
The current refugee crisis is but a taste of the climate refugee crisis to come. But it according to Key it’s fine, because it won’t be a problem in the next year or two.
Wellington rallies for refugees
A great turnout at last night’s rally at Parliament to call for the government to double the quota for refugees.
Tony Abbott and the Syrian refugee crisis
In the UK, in Australia and in New Zealand conservative governments have initially refused to accept more refugees then in a matter of days they have changed their view. At the same time they have announced increased support for refugees they have announced military action against ISIS. Makes you wonder if this is based on Crosby Textor advice.
In Our Back Yard – Manus Island and Nauru
As the photo claims, refugees are human beings. We can tell this from general expressions of resignation, desperation and misery.
But what about our own expressions of humanity?
Lost the Plot
Winston’s solution to war and refugees.
Syrian refugees – National backs down
The backtrack is under way. Last week National was not budging on refugee numbers. Today they will announced an urgent passage allowing for the intake of more Syrian refugees. The focus groups have spoken. Update: and the announcement is for 600 new refugees over 3 years and $4,9 million in increased aid.
Geddis on Key’s guts
Andrew Geddis on Key’s bravado when it comes to sending other people to fight in a war, and his prevarication when it comes to helping war’s victims.
Syria and Internationalism
I wonder if the current public outpouring of sympathy for Syrian refugees is nought but a ‘fashion’, or whether it’s the beginnings of a renaissance for internationalism.
Happy Father’s day
For father’s day how about a gift of a donation to charities helping the refugees pouring into Europe?
National’s refugee backdown
In both England and New Zealand conservative Prime Ministers are looking to urgently backtrack from recent refusals to do anything further for refugees.
A flag that suits Key’s NZ
Lyndon Hood in a work of bleak genius has come up with a flag that really suits Key’s NZ.
Market forces
Rosemary Macleod on the flag and market forces. Danyl Mclauchlan on the refugee disaster, market forces, and Key. Is this our New Zealand?
How much does New Zealand spend on refugees?
The Government is under increasing pressure to increase the number of refugees that it takes. Amnesty International’s proposal to double the number could be met by less than the cost of a flag referendum.
Is Syria the first failed state because of climate change?
A climate change induced drought from 2006 to 2009 appears to have sparked the instability that has caused the Syrian Civil war. The mass exodus of citizens that we are witnessing may be the first of many climate change induced events.
Key is relaxed about widespread refugee crisis
John Key has ruled out an emergency intake of refugees and claims that New Zealand is doing its bit and that bit is enough.
70 refugees dead in small truck on Austrian roadside
When European and NATO countries participate in destabilising and destroying nearby countries, the human tragedy doesn’t stay neatly confined to the other side of the border.
August the 6th, 1945
Seventy years on…